Interview Vincent Vu Van Kha

Vincent Vu Van Kha is a member of the Original Team Rollerblade, a grouping of skaters of disciplines to the antipodes, the speed-skating with Tamara Llorens, the freeride with Greg Mirzoyan. Interview of a virtuoso of the slalom...

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«With the Original Team, roller skating is one sport!»

Hi Vincent! You lived a quite exceptional year in 2010 with the Original Team of Rollerblade. If you take a look back at these last months, I guess you can see thousands of travels and meetings… What was THE best record?

Barcelona. The big meeting of urban sports on the Movistar was a great and gigantic thing, more than any other competition, even bigger than the ISPO! Roller skating fits well to Barcelona: the weather of course, the environment (roads, places, seashore…), the interest in sports and the festive habits of the Spanish. It is a big place in slalom: Spain made a lot of progress these last years. I went three times in Barcelona in 2010, and I would like to go more if I could!

Which meetings did you prefer the most in 2010?

The meeting of the people’s team, I mean Tamara, Greg, Rob and Sven. I met some of them before during some events or on different spots. The idea of Rollerblade to mix so different people from so different ways of skating allowed me to meet these riders, other way of riding, other atmospheres… I had a feeling of unity of the sport, even if we have all different way of doing it (on some technical or physical aspects, according to the risks we take, the attitudes…).

You are always one the sharp of the knife and of art on your skates. What makes you thrill the most: the fact that you manage to realize incredible tricks or the fact that you can surprise the people who are watching you?

The ability to be able to skate on one single wheel, to be able to accelerate front, back or on one side, the ability to coordinate the position of the chest, of the legs, in order to be able to stand… I mean, it is something really personal. I love to take victories over myself, victories that you can share after. There was a lot of progress in slalom on a technical point of view: people cannot even understand the difficulty of the tricks, the techniques… Rotations on one single wheel can be made front or back, and see it, it is something natural to me and some riders. But it is just impossible to spectators or medium level riders… People will always prefer rapidity, some tricks than can be really considered, a perfect ride on a good music.

We always see the final cut, I mean the final work: slaloms, ability on the skates… But we cannot imagine the number of hours it takes to realize such tricks…

Actually, that takes a lot of time. You are sometimes lucky when you manage to do a trick. Two times in a row, it can be hazard… But three times, you must master it! You need time, you need a smart training. You need to be able to pass different stages. Sometimes, you must stop to come back harder. You need emulation, will and a lot of passion!